30 Oct 2012 Leave a Comment
in Beverages, Observations, Recipes Tags: Bodeguita del Medio, Casa San Matias Pueblo Viejo Anejo, Cazadores, Familia Camarenas, Jalisco, Maestro, margaritas, Patrón, tequila, Vallarta Market
Long a beer and wine (and sometimes saké) man, I’ve recently taken to tequila.
I’ve always drank tequila, in the form of a margarita or the occasional shot. But it wasn’t until I was well beyond my freewheeling 20s that I discovered good tequila — sipping tequila. More
05 Oct 2012 6 Comments
in Food, Humor, On the Road Tags: Bodeguito del Medio, camarones, Casa Tres Coronitas, cooking, food, huevos ranchers, margaritas, Mexico, Puerto Vallarta, tequila
The first thing you must let go of at the Casa Tres Coronitas is your need for walls. Because there are few of them, and when Euphracio appears in the morning, many of those fold away into the vistas of the Bay of Banderas.
Sunset on the Bay of Banderas
Because we are in the jungle, the collapsing away of walls means you become integrated with the surrounding nature. More
13 Jul 2012 14 Comments
in Observations, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories) Tags: Dann Byck, Dodgers, food, Riviera, Russell W. Colgin, Scotch, tequila, whisky, Woodland Hills, writing
My dad was always pushing some drink or other at me as a kid. Less in the interest of corrupting me than fostering a strong cultural foundation, an appreciation of the better things life had to offer.
A father and his son. Mt. Rainier National Park. 1968
“Try this, it’s the finest dark roasted arabica coffee,” he would say. Or, “You’ll never taste a wine this good, my boy…” I developed tastes for both. But not Scotch. That was Dad’s drink. Scotch on the rocks. There was always a Glensomethingorother in his glass, it was always “the best Scotch you’ll ever taste,” and it always tasted the way rubbing alcohol smelled. More
26 Jul 2011 9 Comments
in Recipes, Sensational Salads Tags: Cruise America, gazpacho, proscuitto, recipes, salad, scallops, summer, tequila, watermelon
One of the best and worst parts of summer is the watermelon. Sure, everyone loves watermelon, and nothing says summer like a cold, sweet slice on a hot afternoon. That’s the good part. The bad part is that even the “mini” ones are larger than a child’s head. And the big ones are the melon equivalent of a Cruise America RV.
By some point into the summer — usually early to mid July — I begin suffering from watermelon fatigue. My kids insist on watermelon, so I buy the smallest one I can find. And then people begin showing up with them. More
11 Feb 2011 3 Comments
in Recipes Tags: Dan Shore, sangrita, tequila
I’m not typically one for trends. And I become sullen when something I’ve “discovered” becomes trendy — i.e. mojitos, small plate dinners, salted caramels, etc. But my friend, Dan, likes tequila. He brings me tequila when he comes back from Mexico. I like Dan. And separately, coincidentally, we stumbled onto sangrita.
Fine tequila, itself, has become something of a trend. Where years ago if you went to a Mexican restaurant, you’d eat enchiladas and have a margarita made with Cuervo — or maybe Don Julio if it was an upscale joint and you had some cash — now you can sample a range of small artisanally produced tequilas and mezcals with your Oaxacan molé or Yucatan cochinita pibil. More
